8 Great Apps That Let You Read Books for Free

There are two things I love in this world: making linguistic sense of written symbols with my eyeballs as a vehicle to understand abstract works of fiction, and free stuff. And you’re telling me that there are apps that will let me combine my two great loves? Bet.

Here are eight free apps to access books, ranked by their libraries and actual free-ness.

8. Kobo

Kobo is a free-to-download app with a lot of book choices but—and I hate to say it—there aren’t a lot of free books on this app. Most are only available for purchase. I know we’re looking for options to read books for free but I can’t exactly recommend you some random third-party apps that claim to give you free books forever because that’s a way for you to get a computer virus.

But when it comes to free apps that let you read books, there are some really good ones, and Kobo is one of them. With over 6 million books on this app, the money you saved in downloading it for free must make you feel ready to purchase something.

7. Barnes and Noble

I ride for you, Barnes and Noble. How could I not? I still remember sitting on the floor of your stores pouring over comics and then stuffing myself with pastries from your cafes. Did your competitor Amazon ever give me that? No it did not. The books on the Barnes and Noble book app ain’t free, but the fuzzy feeling of nostalgia that will wash over you when pulling up the free app sure is. Combine that with a selection of millions of books, comics, mangas, and audiobooks and you’ve got something not free, but priceless.

6. Scribd

Scribd will let you read millions of books, magazine articles, and even pieces of sheet music for FREE. But there’s a time limit of 30 days, so read fast. Really fast. After your 30-day free trial is up, you’re gonna have to start paying for the books that you read. But hey, is there a book that you’ve been dying to read but don’t wanna pay for? Get Scribd and read it in a month. Unless you’re trying to get through House of Leaves or something you’re probably gonna be fine.

5. Kindle

For better or worse, Kindle has become the gold standard for reading books without having to touch any dirty real-world pages. It’s all clean digital stuff. A LOT of it. Kindle has a MASSIVE library of books, millions. A veritable Library of Alexandria before the fire. As a subsidiary of Amazon, what else did you expect? While a lot of these books are available for purchase, there are indeed some free titles on Amazon as well, you just gotta hunt for them. And depending on what you’re looking to read, the subscription-based Kindle Unlimited might be worth checking out as well.

If you like free stuff as much as I do, I’m confident that you’ll find what you’re looking for.

4. Wattpad

Wattpad is lit if indie authors are your thing. There are thousands of authors who are just starting out who are putting their work online foh free, and all you gotta do is download the app and read to your little bookworm-riddled heart’s content. They’ve got all the good genres. Sci-fi. Romance. Horror. Poetry. Plus Wattpad has works in a range of languages, from English to French to Portuguese and more. What are you waiting for? You’ll never learn to be trilingual just by sitting there like a yam.

3. Oodles 50000

If the name didn’t clue you in, Oodles has plenty of books you can actually read for free housed in the app. Granted, they’re all gonna be classic/public domain books. Anything with a copyright is gonna be real hard to find. But with over 50,000 titles to choose from, you’re bound to find SOMETHING that exists in the public domain that you’re interested in. Jane Austin. Mark Twain. Charles Dickens. Just pick one and read it, even just to brag at a party that you read A Tale of Two Cities. You read the part that goes “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” and that’s it, but no one has to know.

2. Libby

You know what the BEST place to read for free is? Your local library! Forgot about that one, didn’t you? In the Internet Age of instant convenience, I don’t wanna go OUT to find free books, I want free books to come TO ME. But what if I told you that there’s a way to get to your local library without ever leaving your house? Sounds like a Shortening of the Way! Kwisatz Haderach! What is it? It’s not Paul Atreides. It’s Libby! Libby is an app that lets you connect to participating libraries from all over the world and read all of the books (and audiobooks!) housed on their online shelves! Glorious!

1. Your Internet Browser

Disclaimer: I am not telling you to commit the internet crime of piracy. You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to raise the Jolly Rodger before surfing through the web. Like Pontius Pilate, I wash my hands of all responsibility. But I WILL tell you that there are plenty of free books just chillin’ on the internet! Project Gutenberg has a bajillion free ebooks that sit squarely in the public domain. Wanna read Hamlet? Beowulf? Paradise Lost? Some weird and obscure stuff lost to the annals of history? Project Gutenberg probably has it. If you’re a mystical type, you could also visit the Sacred Texts website and read all the collected spiritual writings from every major world religion (and all the cool apocrypha that didn’t make the dogmatic cut). If you’re the fan faction type (with a penchant for smut), you could spend the rest of your life on Archive of Our Own reading about your favorite characters boinking.

There are soooooo many books in the public domain online. You wanna read a classic? Literally Google it.